Lionel Messi is Coming to Manchester?

27 December 2013 09:11

It seems the summer transfer window rumor mill is starting before the winter window opens. Lionel Messi is said to be unhappy at Barcelona and is looking to get away. Manchester City’s Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero are both urging the Argentinean sensational to pack his bags and come to the Etihad. Aguero is Messi’s international teammate while Toure played with Messi during his three years at Barcelona.

Messi is rumored to be unhappy that he is no longer the star of the team and now has to share the spotlight with newly acquired Brazilian forward Neymar. It is also rumored that Neymar’s contract is much more lucrative than Messi’s and that Messi believes he should be the highest paid player at Barcelona.

This all stems from a radio interview that Barcelona vice president Javier Faus gave to RAC1. “I don’t see why we should renew Messi’s contract again.” He then went on to say “He (Messi) has just signed a new contract until 2018 and we don’t have to offer an improved contract every six months.”

Messi had a few words of his own to share a few days late; “Senor Faus is someone who doesn’t know anything about football and wants to manage Barcelona like a business.” It remains to be seen if Faus knows anything about football but Messi is clearly wrong if he believes that Barcelona FC is not a business. With the contract that Neymar received and the improved contract that Cristiano Ronaldo was given by Real Madrid, there seems to be a few hurt feelings and now talk of leaving.

If this little squabble cannot be fixed, where does that leave Messi and who can afford the price tag of someone of Messi’s quality. Only two teams come to mind in English football and that is either Manchester City or Chelsea. Each has owners that have deep pockets and could pay a transfer fee that would be near £100 million if not more. Both Chelsea and City have deep benches and could sell off excess players to offset the cost or use as trading material.

City players are pushing hard in the media to put the seed in Messi’s head about transferring to their club. I am sure the Pablo Zabaleta and Aguero will be helping that along during this summer’s World Cup in Brazil. This is how it usually starts with one small row that turns into a major blow up. If it gets to be too much, then maybe there is a chance that Lionel Messi could be running up and down a pitch in Manchester come August 2014.

Source: DSG